First Chair in Pharmacology in 1918

From Faculty of Medicine Online Museum and Archive

In 1918, Anderson Stuart created a Chair in Pharmacology and appointed his protégé Henry George Chapman to the position. Chapman, a Melbourne University graduate, had been favoured by Anderson Stuart since his appointment as Demonstrator in Physiology in 1903. After graduation, Chapman had been acting Professor of Physiology and then, in 1902, a demonstrator in Pathology at Melbourne University. During this year, he wrote his doctoral thesis on the topic of the musculature of Echidna hystrix, for which he received his MD in 1903. He then came to the Faculty of Medicine as Demonstrator in Physiology and quickly rose through the academic ranks to lecturer, then Assistant Professor in Physiology (1913-1918). In 1918 Chapman became foundation Professor in Pharmacology.

When Anderson Stuart died in 1920, Chapman resigned his professorship of Pharmacology to take up the Chair of Physiology (1920-1928). Although academically brilliant, Chapman proved unequal to his mentor's trust, and took his own life in 1934 after his complicity in mismanagement of research funds became known. It was almost 30 years before a second Professor of Pharmacology was appointed.[1]